Shanghai Major Day 3 Recap

The best plays of the tournament and some of the most exciting Dota of this patch happened yesterday on Day 3 of the Main Event of the Shanghai Major.

The Day started off with Team Liquid taking on the dark horse of MVP Phoenix. MVP had had an unbeaten run in the upper bracket taking out teams much favoured over the Korean team. But their dream run couldn’t last forever. Some unusual drafts from MVP lead to a great start in game 1, but they couldn’t capitalise and lost tempo control over the game, resulting in Liquid taking them down easily. MVP didn’t have an answer in game 2, and Liquid secured their spot in the semi final, giving MVP their first taste of the lower bracket today.

Next up on stage was Secret vs EG. Secret overcame the heavy draft penalty they had for game 1 to create a strong line-up that caught EG a little unprepared. Secret took to teamfighting, and the North Americans just weren’t able to avoid the fights to regain control over the pace of the game.

EG fought back strong in the second game though, making sure to counter draft Secret’s tempo controllers, and dominated Secret to take game 2.

Game 3 of this match-up is a must watch if you missed it live. Some amazing early plays by PieLieDie’s Lion put Secret in a controlling position, however Arteezy’s Sven was still able to develop significant farm mid game to put the game back onto even terms.

Some questionable plays by Eternal Envy’s Ember Spirit kept EG in the game despite Secret taking hard fought fight, after hard fought fight. Secret’s Misery on Nature’s Prophet kept EG on defence from the constant split push from Aghanim’s trees, and forced EG into a last effort return push into Secret’s base. Foregoing buyback Arteezy bought two Divine Rapiers for his Sven and charged into Secret’s base taking down both tier 4 towers. Secret were able to throw themselves and all their buybacks at the hero taking him down to secure a win in the final game.

The day wouldn’t be complete without upsets though, and Complexity delivered in the third match up of the day. Facing up against Alliance, who had been playing phenomenally leading into the tournament, but who have only showed glimpses of what they’re capable of during the main event.

Complexity took risky drafts and even riskier plays to try and shut down the heavily favoured Alliance. Game one didn’t work out for Swindlzz and his team, but in games 2 and 3 they were able to control the tempo of the game throughout, both out pushing and team fighting the opposing line-up.

ZFreek’s Mirana dominated early game 3 landing arrow after arrow on every lane pushing Complexity into an early lead. Some failed teamfights brought Alliance back into the game but they were unable to recover totally from the early loss of their towers and map control, and Complexity wrestled the game out of their grip.

The champions of the Frankfurt Major, OG, hadn’t performed well so far in the tournament, dropping into the lower bracket in round 2. They managed to save themselves easily in the best of one elimination, but were still facing an uphill battle to get to the finals from the lower bracket.

OG were favoured against Fnatic, but the Malaysian team are consistently surprising, even when they’re inconsistent in results. OG never got control of game 1, despite getting an early lead, because of Fnatic’s superior teamfight, and especially their ability to take Roshan regularly and uncontested. OG fought back to take game 2 easily, showing why they were considered favourites, but Fnatic turned it around in game 3 to eliminate OG from the tournament completely.

Upcoming Matches

EG vs Complexity

The two North American teams are forced to face off in the first match of the day. EG have been playing fantastically so Complexity will have to pull out some more of their surprising drafts if they want a surprise victory.

MVP vs Fnatic

The two teams that have been causing the upsets will now face off against each other. Both have been inconsistent, but have shone brightly at their best. Which team will show up to take the ticket to the next round?

Team Liquid vs Team Secret

Both teams have been dominating all tournament, but which team will be able to out-draft the other? Kuroky is rafting up against his old Na’Vi team mate Puppey, so these will be some very interesting games.